EDITOR’S NOTE: The story below includes an assertion by Donald Allen that his IBNN.org website was knocked offline Sunday by a company with ties to INetGlobal. Moments before the story was set for publication, the IBNN website returned. The story does not reflect this later event, and it is possible that the site is not viewable in all parts of the world owing to an apparent change in nameservers. Events surrounding the apparent change in nameservers are unclear.

Acknowledging he had been advised that he potentially has “exposure” in the INetGlobal Ponzi scheme investigation, Donald Allen II said this morning that he had nothing to hide and would cooperate with the U.S. Secret Service and federal prosecutors “100 percent.”

That cooperation already has begun, Allen said. He added that his thinking about INetGlobal has evolved since the Feb. 23 raid of company headquarters in Minneapolis, and he insisted he was out of the loop on INetGlobal’s financial affairs and that his efforts to promote the firm were legitimate.

“Let me make it perfectly clear,” Allen said this morning. “I did the Global News Distribution and was never let in to the ‘workings’ of iNetGlobal. I met with the US Secret Service and [its] position is that I ‘shielded’ [Steve Renner] to operate a Ponzi, which is untrue.”

Allen, a vice president with V-Newswire, an entity in the INetGlobal family controlled by Renner, claimed this morning that the company had blocked his access and the access of readers to a public-affairs Blog he operates. The Blog is known as the Independent Business News Network (IBNN).

The company, Allen asserted, was penalizing him “for coming forward to answer ANY questions the Government has regarding iNetGlobal.”

Renner has not been charged with a crime and has denied wrongdoing. The Secret Service said in court documents filed in February that “there is probable cause to believe that Renner is operating a large, Internet-based, Ponzi scheme through his umbrella corporation, InterMark, and some of its subsidiaries, particularly Virtual Payment Systems [LLC of Wisconsin/Brackets Denoting the LLC Designation added Jan. 20, 2011], V-Media, Cash Cards International, and V-Local.”

NOTE IN BOLD ADDED JAN. 20, 2011: An Indianapolis-based company known as Virtual Payment Systems Inc. has contacted the PP Blog to let it know it is not affiliated with the Renner company Virtual Payment Systems LLC of Wisconsin, which is referenced in the paragraph above.

The Secret Service alleged INetGlobal was the “primary vehicle for the perpetration of this fraud.”

INetGlobal, which features an advertising rotator, is the so-called “autosurfing” platform of the Renner companies. The government has prosecuted several autosurf companies in recent years, saying they were selling investment programs disguised as advertising programs and engaging in wire fraud and money-laundering.

Renner’s company has a high concentration of Chinese members who may have limited or no facility in English, the agency said. At least one INetGlobal member has said Americans flocked away from Renner’s autosurfing enterprise after the Secret Service, in August 2008, raided a similar company in Florida known as AdSurfDaily (ASD).

The ASD litigation is referenced in court papers in the INetGlobal case.

Allen said this morning that he also had performed work for V-Media and V-Local — both of which the Secret Service said had ties to the alleged INetGlobal fraud — but he insisted that he had done nothing wrong.

“I wasn’t privileged to know anything about the compensation program” of InetGlobal, Allen said. “I could not explain it to this day.”

An error message that reads “This Account Has Been Suspended: Please contact the V-Webs.com billing/support department as soon as possible” now appears on the IBNN site. In the early hours after Allen lost control of the Blog, the site would not return a ping and produced a “bad destination” error message, according to records.

Even though Allen moved the content of the site from a hosting company controlled by Renner weeks ago, Renner controlled the domain registration and thus has the ability to block access, Allen asserted this morning.

Allen’s access to the site was blocked sometime after “noon on Sunday,” two days after he met with the Secret Service, Allen said.

Agents appeared at his home Friday unannounced, Allen said.

He described his initial meeting with agents as “excellent.” Allen added that he is consulting with an attorney.

“[The Secret Service] asked me if I would like legal representation,” Allen said. “I said yes.”

A second meeting with the Secret Service occurred yesterday. Allen said he was consulting with his attorney again today, saying a characterization that described him as cooperating with the agency was “totally accurate.”

The move to block IBNN also followed on the heels of a letter Allen gave to Renner April 22, Allen said. The letter claimed that Allen had “clear and documented” evidence of violations of the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity laws in a hiring decision it made.

In the letter, Allen suggested he was not given an opportunity to interview for a job that went to an INetGlobal member with a large downline. The letter also questioned the operations of the company’s board of directors and claimed an INetGlobal “receptionist” was performing “confidential” work that should have been handled by the firm’s Human Resources department.

Moreover, Allen said this morning that nothing in his employment contract with the Renner entity permitted the company to block access to the IBNN site. He claimed that the company now wants him to sign an agreement not to write about INetGlobal and also to inspect his computer.

Allen Questions INetGlobal’s Operations

Allen said this morning that he questioned how the company was paying its bills in the aftermath of the federal seizure of its assets. He claimed a member of INetGlobal with a Chinese name had received a promotion to a position that purportedly paid $120,000 a year after the seizure. This member, Allen said, also may have a seat on the board of directors and also purportedly had a downline organization in the company that purportedly paid $10,000 a day.

His first question for Renner, Allen said, is “how is that possible with the current funds frozen by the US Government?”

Allen said his position with the company was supposed to pay $75,000, but that he had not seen “a penny.”

“I’m a little upset, a little traumatized by this attempt to shut me down, because I had one hell of a story,” Allen said. “I’m kind of devastated; I have a civil-rights Blog. A lot of people read it.”

No Stranger To Controversy

Allen and his IBNN Blog have been the subjects of controversy. He used an offshoot of the Blog to claim in March that “federal officials” were leaking information about the INetGlobal case to the PP Blog. After the PP Blog began to report on INetGlobal, Allen began to post comments on the PP Blog without initially identifying himself as a Renner employee, claiming that the PP Blog was “minor league” and engaging in a “witch hunt.”

Separately, Allen used the IBNN Blog to attack the Star Tribune newspaper of Minneapolis St. Paul for its coverage of the INetGlobal raid. Meanwhile, Allen’s name is listed in the Secret Service affidavit filed in February to obtain search warrants at the firm’s headquarters. In the affidavit, the agency painted Allen as a person who provided confusing information to an INetGlobal prospect at a January event in Flushing, N.Y.

Undercover agents attended the Flushing event, and one agent’s observations of Allen are noted in the affidavit.

An INetGlobal prospect “stated she was struggling to understand how the business worked and explained that the person who brought her to the conference was not able to explain it either,” the agency said in the affidavit. “She asked what would happen if she sold iNetGlobal products to someone who had a website and they did not see an increase in their profits.

“Donald Allen asked her what type of products the person was selling and the woman gave the example of beauty products,” the agency continued in the affidavit. “Donald Allen replied that if she was advertising beauty products and not selling any, then maybe she should be in a different business. The woman further challenged Donald Allen on people not truly viewing the websites, just simply opening them. Patricio Diez, iNetGlobalâ€™s marketing director for Spanish-speaking countries, then stated that ‘that doesnâ€™t matter for you.’

“When the woman pressed further, stating that it does matter to whomever she sold the package to, Donald Allen simply stated ‘we have solutions for that’ but failed to expand upon those solutions,” the agency said.

After the raid at INetGlobal’s offices in Minneapolis, Allen used the IBNN Blog to criticize both the media and the government for what he described as unfair treatment of the company — without disclosing his tie to the firm. Allen later told the PP Blog he should have disclosed the tie.

Allen said this morning that his thinking about INetGlobal has evolved. He added that he also had revisited certain events at INetGlobal and had come to believe that things were not quite right.

At an event in Las Vegas last year, for example, Allen was not given time to talk to attendees about V-Local, he said. In recent days he has publicly questioned why few if any members were interested in purchasing the company’s editorial products.

“I canâ€™t recall ever selling a press release to a Chinese member of iNetGlobal,” Allen said in a comment on the PP Blog April 23. “My yearly budget was in-part based on iNetGlobal members buying a press release from V-Newswire — hasn’t happened yet.”

Meanwhile, Allen said this morning that he was sympathetic to Steven Keough, INetGlobal’s former chief executive officer and potentially the government’s star witness in the case. The company has claimed Keough tried to hatch an extortion plot after he was dismissed for incompetence.

“Keough understood that INetGlobal members needed to buy the products,” Allen said this morning. “Steven Keough was the best thing that ever happened to that company,” adding that he believed Keough saw “noncompliance” with laws and was dismissed for pointing them out.

12 Responses
to “No Stranger To Controversy, Donald Allen Says He Is Cooperating With Secret Service In INetGlobal Probe And Has ‘One Hell Of A Story’ To Tell”

OMG!!! Is Donald Allen for real? This guy is the same guy that talks all kinds of crap around inetglobal for months. He is full of it. He talks about so much stuff, and none of it ever happens. The truth is, Donald Allen is a selfish mental case with his own agenda. That agenda is to push his own so called business. That is why he wanta to shoot down inetglobal. So that he and his so called investors can do the same thing, with the same inetglobal people. What a joke.

iNetGlobal runs an honest legitimate business providing internet services to tens of thousands of small businesses, and an opportunity for tens of thousands of people to make a living by selling these services.

Interestingly enough, the investigation was started after an angry, disgruntled former CEO, Steve Keough, who right after he was fired, made a false report to the Secret Service. This was after only 7 weeks of employment, he attempted blackmailing iNetGlobal to pay him $500,000 and they refused. His selfishness has led to the waste of government resources, member’s consumer rights, as well as the company’s reputation by false accusations.

Yes, he sounds sympathetic to Steven Keough.

His opinion of iNetGlobal may have evolved since the Feb. 23 raid of company headquarters, but this open letter was posted on 18th April, just over a week ago. Maybe its evolved since then?

It obviously is a very recent conversion but a most welcome one. Now all we need is for Cheap Clix Ken Haugen to see the light too. Bearing in mind that Donald Allen 11 and his IBNN website have been constantly quoted by Ken in his defence of iNetGlobal, poor Ken must be feeling a little lonely by now!

This makes PERFECT sense to me….. Assume that Mr. Allen is innocent in the INetGlobal Ponzi, or assume that he is as guilty as heck knowing exactly what went on from Day One. It really doesn’t matter….picture the US Secret Service showing up at Mr. Allen’s doorstep on Friday April 23, five days after he posted his last “I LOVE INetGlobal, it’s the greatest thing ever, and the Evil Government is Wrong!” letter. They show him 10% of the evidence they have amassed, described for him the penalties associated with fraud, money laundering, running a Ponzi scheme, and he quickly realizes that he had better cooperate fully. They have a very solid case, and solid data backing their charges. Mr. Allen realizes that his fate is in the USSS ‘s hands. This is true whether he is innocent (distance himself as far as possible from the real crooks) or guilty (save his own skin and turn on his fellow thieves). Too bad the ASD Ponzi Promoting Gang (Kathryn Milner, Laura Pont, Mindy Bales, Steve Watt, Barb McIntyre, et al) were not/are not that smart……

Chaplain.cz: @Tony HIt obviously is a very recent conversion but a most welcome one. Now all we need is for Cheap Clix Ken Haugen to see the light too. Bearing in mind that Donald Allen 11 and his IBNN website have been constantly quoted by Ken in his defence of iNetGlobal, poor Ken must be feeling a little lonely by now!

Great comments Entertained. There is nothing like the threat of potential encarcelation for involvement in fraud to help them see a business in a “new light”. lol

However, at the end of the day, it doesnt matter WHY he’s cooperating with the authorities, as long as he Is cooperating with them.

As for ASD, anyone who decides to see ASD in a “new light” and help the Government with its enquiries, is fine by me – as long as they provide the necessary information. It would be great if one of that crew decided that the “new light” includede the location of members funds which disappeared offshore or to non-Bowdoin accounts too.

Don Allen has been a thorn in the side of folks trying to improve North Minneapolis for many years, with his oddball get-rich-quick schemes, his backing of worthless political candidates like scammer Lennie Chism and Barb Davis White, and his crazy ass politics. Check out this bizarre and disturbing video Don Allen put on YouTube:

But Don Allen is such a vicious attack dog blogger bully that until quite recently nobody has been willing to attack him BACK. Don Allen will simply make stuff up, like his recent “pulled out of his ass” assertions that a State Senator and a city councilman demanded Don Allen get on their side and back them up. Yeah, right, like ANYBODY wants to be on Don Allen’s team of “uber losers!”

Don Allen also uses numerous anonymous identities on the internet to attack individuals without getting his own identity mixed up in it, but recently he’s left so many trails, these trails can be traced right back to Don Allen.

Nobody WANTS Don Allen anywhere near their side, including (I would assume) Troy Parker, who is running for State Senator and who Don Allen has been hinting he might back in that race. Well, having Don Allen back you in a political race has been a kiss of death for many years.

Now, with his (incredible!) recent marriage to a professor of African Studies at the University of Minnesota (Enid Logan, now Enid Logan ALLEN) and the fall of INetGlobal, folks are coming out of the woodwork and talking openly about Don Allen in a way that has needed to happen for many years.

Oh, and by the way, Patrick…you might see a lot of comments coming in about Don Allen. Your audience is interested in him, apparently. Well, there’s just so much to tell about this colorful scammer and his twisted, incredible history.

@Northside Activist: iNetGlobal is up and running again. .I was never apart of their inner workings so I am pissed that they can just start up with no problem. I don’t know who works there – but I sure don’t